Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Peace War by Vernor Vinge

First sentence:

One hundred kilometres below and nearly two hundred away, the shore of the Beaufort Sea didn't look much like the common image of the arctic: Summer was far advanced in the Northern Hemisphere, and a pale green spread across the land, shading here and there to the darker tones of grass."

Description:

"Hoehler was a man with an idea that would change the world forever...

The ultimate defence initiative and supreme survival technology, it offered total power and the opportunity was not lost on Livermore Electronics Laboratories. Suddenly anyone in the vicinity of a government compound or a defence installation was 'bobbled', locked into a force field and lost to sight forever.

The new Peace Authority had global power in a world where war was obsolete. But outside the impregnable 'bobbles', mysterious plagues began their epic devastation.

And outside the 'bobbles', Hoehler, the man who had created the technology for total power, had become The Peace Authority's most feared enemy, the holder of the long-lost key of hope for a world dominated by soul-numbing repression..." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a thought-provoking look at how technology doesn't always make the world better for everyone. I liked the interactions between Wili, Paul and Alison as they work together to defeat the Peace Authority.